yeah write #309 weekly writing challenge kickoff

The complexity of time

Forgive me for giving you another intro based on my geographic location, but this is Daylight Saving Time weekend. At 2:00 AM it magically turns into 3:00 AM, taking away a precious hour. I don’t know about you, but I need more hours in my day, not fewer. And I don’t care about getting an extra hour one night in November, so don’t even try that one with me.

One of the few benefits of living in New Jersey is that I’m in the time zone everything here at yeah write works from. So, when this post goes live at 12:01 Sunday morning, it’s actually 12:01 Sunday morning for me. For many of you, there’s some math involved in getting to the grids on time or seeing posts as soon as they publish. Thank goodness for the iPhone World Clock, amirite?

My point is, if you’re in a place that doesn’t go messing with the clock, you’ll need to recalibrate to adjust for this nonsense. If you need me, I’ll be trying to survive on even less sleep than usual.

If you want to gripe about time changes or anything else we have zero control over, please do so in comments.

Yeah write super challenge

Our third super challenge is officially over! Congrats to Robin Quackenbush, Tamara Oliver, & Amy Palen on their top three finishes. Did you miss out on registration? Sign up for our email blast so you don’t miss out on any announcements for our super challenge #4. Next time, we head back to the land of fiction!

The basics

Yeah write gives you two competitive challenge grids — nonfiction and fiction|poetry — both of which are unmoderated. Everyone gets to the voting round on Thursday. (Remember, your post must be dated appropriately, not be offensive to our audience, and cannot be over word count.) Got a question? E-mail us, tweet us, ping us on Facebook, or visit our online community, the yeah write coffeehouse. You can learn more about yeah write in our FAQ. Please make sure you are familiar with our submission guidelines before you enter. We don’t have a lot of rules, but we do enforce them across the board. We’d hate to see anyone get disqualified by a technicality.

Bring us your personal essays and creative nonfiction!

The nonfiction challenge grid opens on Monday at midnight EST. This is the best place on the ‘net to showcase your best writing. Make us laugh, make us cry, make us think, and above all: make us care.

Nonfiction know-how: constructive criticism

Enough about writing; let’s talk about reading. For this month’s nonfiction know-how, we want you to take a little break from your own writing. We’re always harping on how being a better reader will make you a better writer. But how do you become a better reader, and what do you do with that reading skill once you have it? Well, it’s for those two little words that strike fear and joy into a writer’s heart: constructive criticism. Learn more from Rowan here.

Is fiction more your thing?

Prompt up!

Prompt up is our optional weekly writing prompt for the fiction|poetry challenge! Here’s how it works: we announce a sentence prompt from last week’s winning nonfiction post. It’s your job to use that prompt in your story or poem in some way. Feel free to use it as your first sentence, move it somewhere else, change it, or float it down to other territories.

Normally, Nate picks the prompt up. But since he won the popular vote last week, I get to do it. His moving piece, Anchors, is a must read. This week’s prompt up is: “I am rewarded with a kiss and a smirk.”

March poetry slam: blank verse

We want to get back to the basics this month. The basics of poetry, that is. It’s been almost two years since we first delved into blank verse for a poetry slam, and while we’d like to pretend all the new folks go back through our writing help section regularly, even we don’t do that. But blank verse is one of the building blocks of great poetry, and even if it’s not your favorite form, there’s tremendous value in learning to do it well. So this month we’re going back to the blank page to write some blank verse. Learn more from Rowan here.

Winners’ round-up

In case you missed them, you can find last week’s yeah write staff picks and crowd favorites all laid out for you on Friday’s winners’ post. Leave the winners some love in the comments. They will love you right back, we guarantee it.

Weekend writing showcase

The weekend’s not over: the yeah write weekend writing showcase is still open. Have something to add? Old posts and new are welcome. No moderation, no voting. It’s a laid-back relaxed kind of place. Just leave your commercial or sponsored posts at home. Drop by, share your work, and while you’re there, visit your fellow yeah writers.